Heir of the Damned
by Escaped Sanity
Summary: You'll never look at him the same again...


**Title:** Heir of the Damned

**Author: **Escaped Sanity

**Disclaimer:** No. Just no.

_Muggle London, 1932_

It's cold and raining outside. There's a boy- he couldn't be more than 4 or 5- sitting on the steps of an orphanage wrapped in a strange cloak. There are whispers from passerby's, "Who is?" and "Why is he here?". No one really knows. No one really cares. And no one stops.

A man comes and with him arrives several bottles of milk. He goes to leave them on the doorstep but stops. A boy? This hasn't happened in several years. He knocks on the door and looks sorry to have woken the Sisters up.

One of the Sisters opens the door and looks long and hard at the man and the child. She beckons the man inside.

From outside, the boy hears hushed whispers, regarding him, he's sure. He's cold and hungry. He looks longingly at a bottle of milk- if only. But his morals will not allow him to steal one, even though he is exhausted and his tummy aches.

The door opens and the man picks up the child. "He's so light!" the man marveled, "'E must not be eatin' proper. You'll see t'that, won't you, Sister?" The child is surprised that this man truly seems to care about his health.

The lady nods. She is very stiff and looks old. The boy is concerned. What if she suddenly falls down dead? Will he be blamed? He begins to look fearful.

The milkman notices- he smiles. "Now see 'ere, youngin', you won't be causin' problems for the Sisters, will you? They's nice enough to take a boy like you in, and you oughta be grateful."

He is. And the Sister (he later finds out her name is Sister Marianne) takes him to the dining hall to get a spot of breakfast. She asks him his name. He replies.

Tom Marvolo Riddle. He's five, born on July 31, 1927. His father abandoned his mother- he doesn't know why. His mother left him on the doorsteps promising to come back for him one day. He believed her.

This boy, Tom, grows up to despise his name. It's so juvenile and it's his father's. His _deserting_ father's. And the other boys despise him.

They laugh at him. Call him names. He's different. Everyone knows that, but no one knows why. All they know is he is different, and therefore cannot be treated the same as the other boys. They laugh; he doesn't know his father- they knew theirs.

_Muggle London, 1936_

When he's 9 he witnesses his first funeral. Sister Julia had passed away in her sleep. Everyone is wearing black. There are mourners and people who pay their respects. They tell Tom that they're sorry, but they know she's in Heaven. They say she was a good Christian woman.

They didn't live at the orphanage. They weren't beaten with her cane every time they did something wrong. Tom despises her and the people. They don't really care; it just looks good to come to a prominent person's funeral, so they do. He longs to tell them the truth, but would not risk another whipping.

_Muggle London, 1938_

He's just turned eleven. They find out exactly what makes the boy so different. He's magical. A wizard. And he was invited to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The Sisters are in shock. A wizard? How can it be possible? But it is.

Everyone is afraid of him, now. He knows it. He can practically smell the fear oozing off of their beings. He relishes in it.

_Hogwarts, 1938_

At Hogwarts he is considered commonplace. No one ridicules him for his strangeness. No, on the contrary, everyone is like him. He has never felt so accepted. Until he hears about the house he was sorted in.

Slytherin. The name rolls off the other student's tongues dripping with sarcasm and malice. Hate and anger. Maybe even jealousy. It was a prestigious house, though most common for dark wizards. He fears what the house will do to him. For him. For the first time since he arrived at Hogwarts, he is afraid.

It is at Hogwarts that he learns another unique ability. Parseltongue- the ability to speak with snakes. He finds writings from Salazar Slytherin about the Chamber of Secrets. The basilisk. He finds out that he is Salazar's heir. The heir of the damned. And he revels in it all.

When the basilisk failed to kill muggle-borns, just like those at the orphanage who made his life living hell, he resorted to more desperate measures. He made up a new name- Lord Voldemort. Only his most intimate friends called him that. He knew there would be more. There would always be more like him.

_Little Hangleton, 1945_

He graduated from Hogwarts. He wanted revenge on the man who bore him. Who created him. He went to Little Hangleton. He killed his father and his grandparents using a dark curse that would land him in Azkaban. He wasn't caught.

In his later years, he rose. He gathered an army of incomparable strength and marched against the wizarding world. He murdered. The first person to die, after his father, was John, the school bully who had always picked on him.

Of the orphanage workers, only Sister Marianne was spared because she was the one who always looked after him. He spared her and she was grateful, though she did not know whom it was and why she was spared.

_Godric's Hollow, 1981_

On October 31, 1981, he went after the Potters. Only the boy was spared- Tom was cast out of his body to wander for what he thought was all eternity. He was later revived by Peter Pettigrew.

All he wanted was revenge for his childhood. For being cast out of his body.

He never got it.

_Ministry of Magic, 1998_

He was captured and murdered mercilessly by Harry Potter in the summer of 1998. He begged for forgiveness- it was denied. He reasoned, begged, and pleaded to deaf ears. His wand was snapped in half. His magic taken away. And finally, after a tortured confession and life story, he was killed. Killed the same way he had so brutally murdered his own father so many years before.

**Author's Note:** This was one of those spur of the moment stories. It hit me and I had to jot it down on here before I lost it. Tell me what you think- it's definitely not my best. Constructive criticism welcomed, but no flames. Thanks! –Escaped Sanity

And I'm not quite sure if the dates are right. I did some calculations, and so I'm pretty sure they're near correct. Tell me if I'm wrong. Thanks.


End file.
